Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Okay, you have seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and while you laughed yourself silly you want to know if it is an accurate portrayal of what Greek-Americans are like. One way of finding out without actually having to leave your home and find a Greek-American community is to read about the story of "The Greeks in America" by Jayne Clark Jones. This volume is part of the In America Series, which is juvenile series about immigration that looks at the most different types of ethnic backgrounds.Jones begins by reminding her young readers that the concept of democracy first began with the ancient Greeks and when she talks about the first wave of Greek emigration she means the colonies established in the Mediterranean as a means of solving the growing population of the city-States. After that emigration meant the empire carved out by Alexander the Great. After that point the story of Greece is one of being conquered by others and when Jones turns to the specific topic of Greek immigration to the United States in her second chapter she is talking about refugees fleeing a Greece that was occupied by the Turkish Empire. Even after Greece won its independence the country's problems, coupled with the prospect of prosperity in the United States, led to the main wave of Greek immigration. This is covered in the third chapter, which also looks at the obstacles face by these immigrants, but which focuses more on how the Greeks solved these problems. In noting the high number of Greeks who repatriated back to their homeland, Jones underscores the uniqueness of these immigrants and how the political turmoil in Greece during and after World War II was an important concern.Read more ›